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* * * * * OUR YOUNG FOLKS A TALK ABOUT THE LION. We wonder how many of THE PRAIRIE FARMER boys and girls have seen the lion, "king of beasts," as he is called. Perhaps not all of you as yet, though many of you doubtless will as the years roll on--and, by the way, you will find that the older you grow the more quickly will they speed away. So be careful in this, the beautiful springtime of your lives, to so cultivate and make ready the garden of your minds that the coming manhood and womanhood may not only find you with well developed arms and limbs and muscles, ready to face the world and to help lift some of its burdens, but also with a mind that has kept even pace with the body--because of constant _growth_. We think we will have to depart from our usual natural history articles some day, and have a talk with the boys and girls on this subject of growth--growth in its largest, broadest sense, the mind, soul, and body all growing together into the stature of a perfect man. But to return to the lion. This animal is the largest of the cat family and is found, only in Asia and Africa. The Asiatic lion is not so large nor so fierce as the African, and has a much smaller mane. The mane of the African lion is long and thick, and gives the animal a very noble appearance; the female, however, has no mane. The lion is always of one color, that is, without spots or stripes, generally tawny, though the mane is dark sometimes nearly black. The lion gets its full growth when seven or eight years old, and lives usually about twenty-five years, though some have been known to live much longer in menageries. These animals see much better in the night than in the day, so they generally hide away during the day and search for food in the gray dawn of the morning. They feed chiefly on antelopes, zebras, giraffes, and wild cattle. It is said that the lion rarely attacks man, only in cases of extreme hunger; indeed, they seem somewhat afraid of man. Dr. Livingstone says that when the lion meets a man in daylight it will stop two or three seconds to stare at him, then turn slowly round and walk off a few steps, looking over its shoulder, then begin to trot, and when at last he thinks he is no longer seen will bound away like a hare. The Doctor says also, that the roar of the lion is very like the cry of the ostrich, but the former roars only at night, however, while the latter cries only
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